


Stay If You Wanna Love Me

by trinaest



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, Comment Fic, Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-01
Updated: 2011-06-01
Packaged: 2017-10-20 00:02:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/206650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trinaest/pseuds/trinaest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve isn't quite happy with how things stand between him and Danny, but he has a plan to fix things. If it doesn't blow up in his face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay If You Wanna Love Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stellarmeadow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarmeadow/gifts), [zarah5](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarah5/gifts).



> Written for zarah5's [lyrics prompt comment fic post](http://zarah5.livejournal.com/74342.html). Originally posted [here](http://zarah5.livejournal.com/74342.html?thread=2784870).
> 
> Many thanks to Ivy for the read-through and suggestions. You were right, as always, and this got quite a bit better as a result. :D

_"Stay if you wanna love me, stay, oh don't be shy"_ \- The Killers, Indie Rock'n'Roll

 

As usual, Danny dragged himself out of bed in the wee hours of the morning, pulled on his clothes, and headed for the door. He never saw Steve watching him go, never saw the look in his eyes, more resigned than hurt, but losing hope each time they tumbled into bed and then Danny escaped, back to his shithole apartment, before they could properly wake up together.

Steve wasn’t sure what he’d done wrong, why Danny always left. One thing he knew for damn sure was that he was in love with Danny. Doesn’t Danny know that? he wondered.

He sighed and fell back against his pillows, turned over so his back was facing the door and tried not to listen to the car starting up outside and leaving. He stared at the wall for a while, eventually falling into an uneven sleep.

Danny picked him up in the morning, behaving as if there was nothing between them, as if they’d never kissed, never touched, never-- Steve forced his mind to shy away from the words “made love,” but they were floating there anyway.

He let Danny drive. He stared out the passenger window, barely registering Danny’s morning rant; he wasn’t even sure what the topic was. He didn’t like this funk he was falling into. He was starting to feel like a lovesick teenager, and wasn’t that just stupid at age 35?

The thing was, he never in a million years thought that Danny Williams, family man, would ever go for casual. Was he just a convenient fuck because Danny wasn’t currently seeing anyone?

Oh god, there I go again, talk about sounding like a teenager. Even if it is only in my own head, it’s pathetic. He resolutely sat up a little straighter, found a new subject to think about-- the current case, always good for a distraction-- and steered their conversation there. Get his mind working through solving a case, that’d distract him, right?

It...worked. Mostly.

That night, Steve was at home contemplating dinner when Danny showed up, and Steve had spent enough time mulling the situation over today that he now had a plan. A plan to throw Danny off guard and hopefully move them forward. He was tired of waking up alone every morning, no matter how mind-blowing the sex was.

Steve smiled at Danny’s predictability. He almost always arrived in time for food. Danny walked into the kitchen, his personality taking up all the space in the room, as he always did, and grabbed a beer out of the fridge. He was ranting about Rachel, waving the beer around with one hand, drawing pictures in the air (not that Steve could ever decide what they were pictures OF...) with the other.

Steve finished prepping the steaks he’d chosen and put them in the fridge to marinate for a little while. He leaned against the counter, beer in hand, and listened to Danny, offering comments to fill the infrequent gaps as needed.

Ten minutes of ranting and half a beer later, and Danny was starting to relax. Steve could see it in the diminishing stiffness of his shoulders, even in his posture. Steve studied him for a long moment, until Danny wound down some, ending his rant with, “...what?”

“Nothing.” Steve smiled and pushed himself off the counter he’d been leaning against and walked over to Danny. He laid a hand on Danny’s shoulder and wrapped his fingers around the side of his neck, then leaned over to kiss him. Danny froze for a split second, but then returned the kiss.

When Steve pulled away, he waited for a reaction, rubbing his thumb lightly against Danny’s neck where his hand still rested. “Now?” Danny looked confused.

“Now what?”

“Now this, now us, you, me, sex?”

“Oh. No, not now. Steaks first.”

“Oh. I just-- I didn’t know we did this.”

“Did what?”

“I dunno, just...kiss? Like just to kiss?”

Steve tilted his head a bit, considering. “Got a problem with that?” Danny didn’t answer, but he also didn’t pull away. Steve was pretty much putting everything out on the table tonight, and he didn’t really know how Danny was going to react. All he could do was try, and hope.

Danny was still looking at him like he might have lost his marbles somewhere. Steve grinned-- striving for casual, normal, when really he was a bundle of nerves underneath-- and stepped away from Danny, turning to retrieve the steaks from the fridge. Throwing Danny a little off balance was actually kind of fun, he had to admit, if only to himself.

He started to walk out to the lanai but paused to look back over his shoulder. “Grab a couple more beers?” He sauntered out, knowing that, no matter what else he was unsure of at the moment, Danny would follow.

Danny hovered while the steaks cooked and Steve kept sneaking little looks at him. He didn’t seem upset, exactly, but he was looking...a little unsure of himself. Steve’s idea was to push Danny a little, give him a hint that maybe things could be different than he seemed to think, not to pull the rug out from under him. He liked a confident Danny. He also liked a Danny who was going to stick around; the last thing he wanted to do was accidentally drive him away.

He needed to keep pushing, because he couldn’t handle much more of acting like nothing mattered, but he also had to pay attention, be careful, so the whole thing didn’t blow up in his face. That would not be the sort of explosion he enjoyed.

Steve flipped the steaks and lowered the lid on the barbecue before turning to Danny. He was staring at his feet, frowning slightly, dangling an empty beer bottle from his fingertips. Steve took the beer bottle and set it down, then gathered Danny into a hug. Again, he stiffened for a fraction of a second and then went with it. After a moment, he wrapped his arms around Steve’s waist and pressed his face to Steve’s shoulder. Steve leaned to bury his face in Danny’s neck, breathing in his scent and just...holding him. Giving comfort, and receiving it, too.

Eventually, Danny asked, “What are we doing, Steven?” Frankly, Steve was surprised it’d taken him so long to ask.

“Nothing, we’re hugging.”

Danny huffed out a quiet laugh. “Yes, I had noticed that, babe. What I have also noticed is that you...your behavior is a little, hmm, unusual tonight. Why?”

Steve pulled back far enough to look Danny in the face. “Demonstration.” Then he kissed him lightly on the lips and released him, turning to take the steaks off the fire.

Surprisingly, Danny didn’t blow up or demand an immediate explanation. Instead, he mulled it over while they ate dinner. Steve watched him, his furrowed brow showing that he was thinking something over, absently painting designs in the water that had dripped on the table from his beer bottle.

When they’d both finished dinner, they pushed back slightly from the table and looked at each other. Steve tried for ‘relaxed and easy’ but really just hoped he wasn’t sporting ‘constipation face’ (as Danny would so kindly describe it).

“So,” Danny began, “if I am understanding your demonstration so far, you are trying to tell me something here.” He waved a hand back and forth between them. “Right?”

Steve smiled and nodded. Had he figured it out?

Danny rolled his eyes and threw his hands toward the ceiling. “Words, Steven, I happen to know you know how to use them.” Damn. He should have known Danny wouldn’t let him off the hook that easily.

“Words are--” Difficult, uncomfortable, show too much. All true, but also all cop-outs. Steve took a deep breath and stood up, walking to Danny’s side. He took his hand and urged him to stand up. He didn’t let the hand go, using it to anchor himself somehow so he could speak the words that were burning in the back of his throat. “I just wanted you to know that you can stay.” He paused, staring at Danny’s still-furrowed brow. “In the night, after-- you can stay.” Unspoken, but hopefully understood: I _want_ you to stay.

Danny’s confusion turned to surprise and he sucked in a quiet breath. “Oh.” He looked intently into Steve’s eyes for a moment, then reached out, dragging Steve closer and enveloping him in a hug. “Jesus, babe. I’m sorry, I-- I had no idea. I just thought, I thought--” He cut himself off abruptly, stifling a laugh. “I am an idiot. I thought, ‘Okay, Steve is a casual kind of guy. I can be a casual kind of guy.’ And so, I tried to act like casual was okay. I thought casual was all I was going to get, babe, and I was trying to be okay with that.”

It was Steve’s turn for the furrowed brow, apparently. “So you’re not okay with casual?”

“No. No, I’m really not. I’m really more of a romantic at heart.” Danny chuckled, a little ruefully.

Steve sighed, releasing a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “Thank god,” he murmured, moving to kiss Danny (with intent, this time).

No explosions, no running away, none of the other myriad terrible outcomes Steve had imagined.

In fact, Danny stayed the night.


End file.
